Tracking cash investments using Xero

Sharesight clients who use Xero (any version) can track cash investments for any account that is supported by Xero bank feeds. This means that an up to date and on-going cash balance will be automatically displayed within your Sharesight portfolio(s).

In order for these cash holdings to be reflected in Sharesight, you must first set them up in your Xero account. For more information, see the Xero help page: setting up bank feeds in Xero.

Once you have set up the bank feed in Xero, open the dropdown menu next to Add Holding and select Add Cash Account.

Choose the tab for Xero and click the button Connect to Xero. If you’re not logged into Xero already, you’ll be prompted to do so within Sharesight.

Once finished, you’ll be prompted to select which Xero organisation (account) to utilise.

If you do not see the Xero cashbook or your Xero premium product in the list click ‘connect to another one’ to search for your other Xero product.

Next, you’ll be prompted to select which bank account inside the Xero organisation to integrate with Sharesight and to give the cash holding a name. This name will be used throughout Sharesight to identify the cash investment.

After you click the Create new cash account button, Sharesight will retrieve your transaction history from Xero and display your current balance. It’s important to note that Sharesight will only retrieve cash transactions that have been reconciled in Xero.

This also serves as the cash holding detail page. On this page you can search for cash specific transactions or export the data to Excel or PDF. Back on the Portfolio Overview page, you’ll now see a new section called Cash Accounts, which includes your Xero-linked cash account. This balance will be automatically updated every day. Clicking into this holding will display your transactional history.

Unsettled Trades Adjustment

If you use the Xero-linked cash account for funding trades, you can also use a feature that will automatically account for any portfolio balance discrepancies due to unsettled trades. Since trades appear in Sharesight in a matter of seconds, but the cash is not debited from the funding account for up to three days (T+3 rule), this feature will automatically offset the value of the newly purchased shares with the appropriate amount of cash. This unsettled cash balance will then automatically reverse itself after three days. When this is in effect you’ll notice a new line item under the cash holding titled Unsettled Trades Adjustment.

To toggle this feature on or off, go to the Settings menu within the portfolio and tick the box next to Calculate Cash Accounts Adjustments.